Missoula Personal Injury Blog

The vast majority of car accidents in Montana and around the country involve some kind of human error. Car manufacturers have introduced a range of features in recent years that are designed to monitor road conditions and step in when drivers become distracted or make mistakes, and a recent study reveals that they can be extremely effective. Researchers from the University of Michigan studied accident reports from 10 states to gauge the effectiveness of safety features like automatic braking systems, blind spot monitors and lane departure warnings, and they discovered that they can cut the number of some kinds of accidents almost in half.

The researchers were able to determine which vehicles were equipped with advanced driver assistance systems using information provided by General Motors. They found that vehicles equipped with automatic emergency braking systems were involved in 46% fewer rear-end collisions; lane departure warnings cut side impacts by 20%, and blind spot alerts combined with departure warnings reduced lane-change accidents by more than a quarter.

Those who choose to drive on Montana roads should make sure that they are not sleep deprived or under the influence of sleep medication. According to a Consumer Reports survey, roughly 20% of respondents who took prescription sleep aids did so less than seven hours before driving a vehicle. The directions say that an individual should wait at least seven hours before driving to avoid doing so while groggy.

Individuals who drive while sleep deprived could experience the same effects as those who drive while under the influence of alcohol. Driving after being awake for 24 consecutive hours is the same as operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .10%, which is above the legal limit of .08%. A study conducted by AAA in 2018 found that 9.5% of crashes are caused by drowsy drivers.

Many Montana residents are worried about the potential dangers posed by infections, especially because serious infections can be deadly. If a patient goes into sepsis, he or she could die because of the way the body responds to the presence of an infectious agent. While treatment of sepsis or septic shock is critical to save lives, the wrong treatment decisions can also be dangerous. Physicians have raised questions about a campaign that aims to begin specific treatments for sepsis within one hour after medical professionals recognize the condition.

Some emergency room physicians argue that following these guidelines strictly could actually pose an increased danger to patients without protecting lives, due to the risk of a misdiagnosis or overtreatment. Sepsis can, of course, be fatal, and treatment is critical. However, a misdiagnosis could lead to powerful, inaccurate treatment that could cause severe, long-lasting side effects. Previous directives for treating sepsis put in place protocols for three and six hours after diagnosis. The intention was to reduce the time between diagnosis and treatment, but the rush associated with a one-hour protocol could lead to mistakes in diagnosis, doctors argue.

In June 2018, a man installing a beer-dispensing system at SunTrust Park, the home ballpark of the Atlanta Braves, was found dead in a concession stand beer cooler. Now, the widow is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the Atlanta Braves and the construction team in charge of the installation. Montana residents should know that the man had invented a system called Draftwell that reduces the average pour time for beer. He had installed it previously in two Major League Baseball stadiums.

The lawsuit alleges that the construction team knew about issues with the door release mechanisms in the stadium's coolers. In fact, the team had received an email about this prior to the incident. The team should have also known about any carbon dioxide leaks in the draft beer system. Not only that, but they should have also addressed the issues before the installation began.